Patty Shepard

Patty Moran Shepard (October 1, 1945 – January 3, 2013) was an American-born film actress. She moved to Europe and appeared in more than fifty Spanish, Italian and French films from the 1960s to the 1980s. She died from a heart attack in 2013 at age 67.

Shepard was born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1945. Shepard first arrived in Spain with her father, an official with the U.S. Air Force, who was stationed at an air force base in Torrejón de Ardoz. She moved to Madrid in 1963 to pursue studies in philosophy. However, she soon began modeling and appearing in Spanish television commercials, including a campaign for a brand of brandy. The roles would lead to more serious acting parts and she remained in Spain for the rest of her life.

Her younger sister Judith Chapman was a television actress in the USA and had roles in Murder, She Wrote and The Young and the Restless.

Her early television credits led to a small, debut film role in La ciudad no es para mí (The City is Not For Me) in 1966, which launched her film career. She appeared in more than fifty films in Spain and Italy over the next twenty years, before retiring in 1988.

She married Spanish actor Manuel de Blas in 1967; the couple had met while filming the 1967 movie, Cita en Navarra (A Date in Navarra). They were still married 46 years later at the time of her death.

Shepard played the vampire countess in the iconic 1970 Paul Naschy film, Walpurgis Night (the film which is credited with kickstarting the entire Spanish horror film industry of the 1970s). She also played the lead role in Hannah, Queen of the Vampires. She returned briefly to the horror genre in 1987 with such films as Slugs and Edge of the Axe, then retired in 1988.

Patty Shepard died from a heart attack at her home in Madrid, Spain, on January 3, 2013, at the age of 67.

• The Boldest Job in the West (1969)
• Los Monstruos del Terror (1970) w/ Paul Naschy
• La Noche de Walpurgis aka Walpurgis Night, aka The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman (1971) w/ Paul Naschy
• The Legend of Frenchie King (1971)
• The Glass Ceiling (1971)
• My Dear Killer (1972)
• A House Without Boundaries (1972)
• Escalofrío diabólico (1972)
• The Killer is One of the Thirteen (1973) w/ Paul Naschy
• Crypt of the Living Dead (aka Hannah, Queen of the Vampires) (1973)
• The Man Called Noon (1973)
• Special Killers (1973)
• The Stranger and the Gunfighter (1974)
• Watch Out, We're Mad! (1974)
• Refuge of Fear (1974)
• La ciutat cremada (1976)
• Los diablos del mar (1982)
• Banter (1986)
• Rest in Pieces (1987)
• Slugs (1988)
• Edge of the Axe (1988)